MAS group shapes its destiny;

Page 1

Mis Group
Shapes
lis
Destiny
Early last November, as the winter's
first snow flurries descended on north­ern
Illinois, planes converging on
O'Hare Airport brought Haskins & Sells
management advisory services talent
from all parts of the country for a three-day
stock taking of how far the Firm
has come in MAS.
The meeting was appropriately
staged at the Drake Oakbrook just west
of Chicago, where in 1900 the Firm
took an early systems engagement to
prepare a report on "The Methods of
Accountancy of the City of Chicago."
That engagement was typical of much
of our work in those days. In fact, with
the great growth of audit and tax ser­vices
yet to come, work of this kind
was the backbone of the early practice
of Haskins & Sells. The only thing new
about MAS, as we call systems work
today, is its scope, sophistication, and
volume, and the special staff assembled
for it.
Yet our present state of competence
has not been reached by a direct and
inevitable course. It was given a special
push by a policy memorandum written
Gordon L. Murray